Introduction
Londes (2007) conducted a research to investigate on the causes of insecurity in the surgery room, as it had become a rampant story in many hospitals in the country. The communication efficiency between the nurses and surgeons in the surgery room was pointed out as one of the issues associated with insecurity in the healthcare facilities. The article starts by highlighting the prevalence of the problem among many hospitals in the country and relating the main cause of insecurity to lack of proper communication channels.
The research conducted by Londes was a case study as medical professionals had already embarked on establishing a culture of security in the operating rooms.
Purpose
The main objectives of carrying out the study were to determine the best ways of realising a culture of safety. Having noted of the more than 4000 wrong site surgeries that had been already reported in the country, the author established means of finding out the failure points in the operations rooms and communication was highlighted as one of the misgivings to safer operations (Guerlain et al., 2005). The article was therefore aimed at pointing out the weaknesses present in the communication channels and culture that led to the wrong site surgeries.
Design
Since the research was observational rather than experimental, the design used consisted mostly of making observations and collecting as much information as possible about the causes of insecurity in the operation rooms (Bardran, Hansen, & Seogaard, 2006). The researcher made use of interviewing and questionnaires in order to collect the information required for the analysis towards achieving a culture of safety (Londes, 2007). The workers were interviewed on different communication patterns in the operating room. The interviews were not discriminative as they were directed to medical professionals and non-medical professionals as well. The reason for combining both parties was to ensure that the communication flow was not altered by either of the parties. Questionnaires and interviews were meant to make use of the ethnographic aspects in order to elaborate on the perspectives of all the persons involved with even the slightest role during the operation processes.
Nurses and physicians were questioned on their communication patterns inside the operation rooms. The technologists were also questioned in order to understand how intense the physicians questioned or consulted issues based on certain technologies and facilities. Non-clinical staffs were equally involved in the operation processes and had also to be evaluated through the use of interviews to ascertain how they related with the clinical staffs.
The independent variables of this case were the clinical and non-clinical staffs. This is because these persons were directly associated with the events inside the operation room. The patients were also independently attached to the case since the whole process rotated around them. The communication patterns were the dependent variables as they relied heavily on the behaviours of the independent variables. Lack of communication and other beneficial traits from the independent variables were directly associated with the safety of the patients.
Data Measurement and Analysis
The researcher applied thematic coding in order to ascertain the relevance and the problems leading to the lack of security in the surgery rooms. In addition, the author made use of coordinated management of meaning to figure out the issues leading to insecurity in the operation rooms. The themes were categorised in form of stratification, discrimination, trust and respect (Londes, 2007). Each issue had to be associated with any of the categories for a better approach to be achieved.
Results
According to the research, the healthcare institutions lacked proper communication channels and patterns, and especially among the health workers. Respect and discrimination were common, especially against the seemingly less important workers (Moshe, Roberto, Zeev, Haim, & Zvi, 2001). Lack of trust made the communication capabilities to drop and focus was shifted from the patient to personal preferences.
In conclusion, the author develops clear analysis of how poor communication patterns can and already has affected the healthcare facilities. By using the observational technique, the author managed to link poor communication and errors in the operation rooms.
References
Bardran, J. E., Hansen, T. R., & Seogaard, M. (2006). AwareMedia: A shared interactive display supporting social, temporal, and spatial awareness in surgery. New York, NY: ACM.
Guerlain, S., Adams, R. B., Turrentine, F. B., Shin, T., & Guo, H. (2005). Assessing team performance in the operating room: Development and use of a “black-box” recorder and other tools for the intraoperative environment. Journal of the American College of Surgeons, 200(1), 29-37.
Londes, L. F. (2007). Healthcare communication and the creation of a culture of safety. Santa Barbara, CA: ProQuest.
Moshe, H., Roberto, S., Zeev, F., Haim, B., & Zvi, R. (2001). Novel, Compact, Intraoperative Magnetic Resonance Imaging-guided System for Conventional Neurosurgical Operating Rooms. Neurosurgery, 48(4), 799-809.